It’s National Reading Month, which is my favorite time of year, since I am a bookworm. We’re a club with specific characteristics and one thing is certain: bookworms find other bookworms. They simply must, so they can find out about more cool books.

Bookworms have been devouring books for as long as they can remember – for story, for new worlds and new ideas. Their To Be Read piles are taller than a small child. Their favorite authors and characters become friends.

If you are a bookworm, there are things that I know about you that I don’t know about the other readers I meet:

1. I know you read odd things in odd places.If you are stuck somewhere without a book, you will begin reading any words available – shampoo bottles, food labels, billboard signs. Whatever. Books and magazines are preferred, but in a pinch, any words will smooth your soul.

2. You read by flashlight in bed at night when you were a child.When your person-in-charge confiscated it, you waited 5 minutes before pulling the back-up light from its crafty hidey-hole. If they were on to you and confiscated the back-up, you tilted the pages to try to read by the light from the hall.

3. When a book touches you, it is a safe bet that you will not only remember the details of that story, characters, etc…you will also remember where you were the first time you read it and what you were doing that day.

4. I am certain that if you named 10 best friends from the various periods of your life (and were being honest), at least half of them would be book characters or the authors who wrote them.

5. You have different books for different moods.These are your go-to books when you’re in the grip of overwhelming emotion. You keep reading through that stash of books until the feeling gets a little more manageable.

6. Piles of free books by your most cherished authors gives you that same zing of attraction that you felt the first time you saw your true love.

7. When you meet your favorite author(s), your tongue gets tied in knots and the idea of speaking to them gives you an extreme physical reaction. (I blush, nearly every time.)

8. You have rituals associated with your books.Whether it’s the way you clean them, sort them, store them or lend them, there is something particular you do with your books. And it makes you feel happy and peaceful when you look at your books after you’ve done it.

(For me, it’s the way I order them and which shelf or room they’re in. My husband knows: don’t be moving my books without telling me. It morphs me into the Devil Wife.)

9. On the touchy subject of lending…bookworms are quite particular about loaning their books.I know that when someone borrows a treasured book from you and doesn’t return it – or worse, passes it on to someone else without asking you first – your friendship with them changes.

You’re probably still their friend, but you’ll either “forget” to loan them books in the future or you buy a copy from the used bookstore as a back-up and loan them that. There is an A-List of book-borrowers in your life and you love to have coffee with these people.

10. When a book touches your spirit and transports you to a place you’ve never been, it’s not uncommon for you to read the last page, turn the book over and start at Page 1 because you can’t bear to say goodbye to the characters yet.

There are more things that I know about bookworms and their reading habits but I’d love to hear from all of you. What are your favorite books? Do you have book rituals? (If so, what are they?) Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!

27 Responses to 10 Unusual Things I Know About Bookworms

Yes, I definitely qualify! Great post, Jenny. I carry a Kindle in my purse, keep a book on the dining room table, and have a book on the table beside my bed. Oddly, I usually read nonfiction downstairs and fiction upstairs!

I just get a little manic if I can’t find a book I want. I don’t know why…I just DO. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this, Elizabeth. And if I have to get rid of books, which is rather painful, I always make sure they go to a good home. 🙂

I am a cover fanatic, too, and books with covers I love so much, I pet them from time to time, must be displayed on little easels, as the works of art they are. And yes, to the special arrangements on shelves, too. I even have rules about which room the books are in, since we have large bookshelves in every room of our house. The most precious are in my library, but there are certain collections that must be in the family room, and others, in the living room or bedrooms. Gack. We really are a breed apart. 🙂

I LOVE IT, Marcia! You are my people!!! Different books go in different rooms and favorite books must be petted. Once every year or so, I take a damp cloth and a dry cloth and dust all my books completely so that I can always go to any of my bookshelves and pet my books without allergies.

I should do that, too, but lately, I have time only for writing, and for reading (though not nearly as much time for that one as I’d like, these days). Housecleaning has fallen by the wayside, with dustbunnies and furballs the size of Volkswagens, blowin’ around like tumbleweeds! Eeep. It’s a sad state of affairs, but when forced to choose, I’ll go with authorin’ and readin’ over houseworkin’, any day! 😀

Glad I found your blog. I’ll be back to look around, for sure. Editing now, and that barely leaves time for breathing. 😉

I’m allergic to dust mites, so when it gets that bad (and it does), I hired in a housekeeper for $80. But they don’t do books, so I need to break down and do it – right now it’s been 4 years. I plead “kids.”

Hope you enjoy the blog! We laugh about undies a lot, and the foibles of life. Just pick your category from the right and have a good time. 🙂

I have allergies, too, but I blame them on the animals (4 cats and 2 dachshunds) and ignore the fact that my ceiling fans look like they’re wearing wool mittens! 😯

“Honest, honey. I promise I’ll get to the broom and dustpan just as soon as I finish this new, 14-book series I’m reading. Meantime, if you’re not doing anything, here’s a can of Pledge. Have at it.” 😀 *goes back to book, oblivious to this world, and anyone living in it*

Number nine is so true. Lend my book without permission and the dynamic of our friendship changes.
My number eleven would be: What does the borrower use as a bookmark? One borrower used a dirty sock to mark his place. Needless to say, he never borrowed another book, and like any OCD person with a book fetish, my book became his book and I bought another.

If it’s really, really, REALLY great, I just can’t bear to leave and I have to read the book again. It doesn’t happen often, but I know exactly which books I’ve had to do that on. The last one was “Code Name: VERITY” by Elizabeth Weins. Ah-mazing read.

As much as #9 pains me because I cannot tell you how many books I’ve lent out to never be returned. Yet I fall right into category #10. I love to reread a book as I finish the last page. I’m just not ready to move on. Then there is the student factor. I love to reread to get into the writer’s head, learn how he/she crafted the book. Just don’t take that book away. I want to stay with my friends a little while longer. 🙂